One of the main reasons I wanted to cross the border and go check out the Emerald City was to really experience Pike Market to its fullest. I’d been before, but this was a long time ago and I had forgotten what it was all about. Staying only about 4 blocks away from the market was a treat as the GF and I walked down to the market every morning for a cup of coffee and some brekky.

The first time we ventured down we made sure to see every knick knack and explore every corner. The Pike Market has everything you can imagine from fresh fish to comic books so I experienced a bit of sensory overload to begin with. Obviously we watched the fish tossers for a while, smelled the fresh baking and had ourselves nice walk through the place. Come to think of it, it felt like we were this old retired couple checking out the sites for a little while…

After the market we took a walk through downtown to go meet up with Dr. Lee. We were actually staying about a block away from his chiropractic office so it wasn’t hard to find. We went up the elevator and to our surprise found the title “Dr. David H. Lee” stenciled on the door. I guess you had to have grown up with me to really understand the irony of this, but to see a childhood friend’s name with the title Dr. in front of it was a bit of a trip.

Dr. Lee works at Dynamic Chiropractic in downtown Seattle and to my knowledge, this is the absolute best chiropractic office on the west coast of… the world. Okay so I might be slightly biased, but you gotta support. He showed us around for a bit, we went to lunch and then the GF and I headed north on Pike to check out some of the boutique shops.

I’m not a shopper, in fact I kind of hate it. The process of looking, trying things on, then spending cash just baffles me – good thing I had a professional with me and she showed me the ropes. Dr. Lee’s friend dropped us off at the top of Pike and we walked back down towards our hotel. This allowed us to check out some of the sneaker shops which is my only saving grace when it comes to retail therapy. I picked up some shirts and another pair of P-Rods from a place called 35th North; we also checked out Rock Paper Scissors and Goods. Seattle’s got a nice sneaker scene; they know their way around a skate shoe, but that isn’t surprising.

The evening brought us back down to the market where we dawned bibs and hammers and smashed our way through a great Crab Pot dinner. I recommend this place to anyone looking for good shell fish and good times. There’s nothing better than taking a hammer, smashing your food all over the table, then eating it.

Even though my post-birthday trip to Seattle was only a few days, the GF and I accomplished quite a bit. Because of this, I’ll split this post up over a couple of days so nobody gets too bored reading through it.

The drive down was amazing. The sun was out and I actually got a terrible T-Shirt tan through the moon roof of the boat we call a car. As with many border crossing travelers, my main concern on the way down south was passing trhough American customs. If you’ve followed my adventures with customs then you’ll agree, that these people generally don’t like me very much…

Until now! Crossing from Canada into the US on Thursday was probably the most pleasent border crossing experience of my life. The couple in the car behind us were screaming at each other with the windows down so I made up their conversation. It was similar to the way John Conner yells into the HAM radio in Terminator Salvation, “WE’RE DEAD! WE’RE ALL DEAD!!!” But my experience when we got to the customs agent was amazing. Dude loved me for some reason and even did a little jig in his booth when I answered all of his questions. Okay, I guess you really had to be there.

We checked into the Sheraton on 6th and Pike and looked out onto Pike Market which was amazing. When we arrived it was too late to explore, so we set up shop and took a walk around town. We found a downtown theatre showing UP in 3D so we had to check it out. Here’s a quick and dirty review:

AMC (the theatre showing UP in 3D) gave us re-usable 3D glasses so we brought them home. The flick started off with a great little short called Partly Cloudy or something of the matter. As always, Pixar goes above and beyond many expectations with their detailed work and their attention to emotion and character. The then continued into UP which had one of the best beginnings to a film that I’ve ever seen. If you know the plot of UP then this won’t be news to you, but for those who don’t you’ll learn to appreciate the pace of a flick and how to present an amazing back story before the film begins. Once the actual story got started, we were all smitten. The GF cried like crazy throughout which is always a good sign. I saw Russel – my 9-year old alter ego and watched as Pixar through amazing visuals wrapped around a touching story once again. I think UP ranks just behind The Incredibles and slightly ahead of Wall*E.

So that was the first night and I’ll cap it all off with a quote from Dr. Lee: “Dude. You came all the way to Seattle to watch a movie?”

Yup!

Tons of flood warnings for the one weekend in January that I’ll be headed south. I had planned on going down to hang out with some friends, but from the looks of it, I should probably bring a life jacket and paddle.

BTW – it is ridiculously difficult to find informaiton (even on this internet thing) on the specifics of road closures and warnings driving from Vancouver to Seattle…

If anyone can figure it out please let me know.

I just got back from an icy trip to Seattle where I was greeted by this event on the way into town.

This actually took place on Denny Way – about 2 blocks away from where I was staying. By the time we left in the morning it was all cleared up, but jeez, who tries to drive a packed Greyhound down a road with 4 inches of ice. And who would follow?